The Persian cat breed is one of the most popular cat types on the world. Their main characteristic is long-haired breed and shortened muzzle. It takes its name from Persia, Iran. English breeders took Persian cats to England and sold them with the names like Longhair or Persian Longhair. Traditional Persian cat breed still can be found because lots of breeders worked to save original breed. Polycystic kidney disease is the most prevalent illness in breeds. Because of its long hairs and their high exuviation period England and France restricted sell of them so it became most popular cat type in USA. How many types of Persian cats are there?
Persian cats’ history is not clear but it’s a common belief that they are coming from African wildcat. In the 19th century, scientists believe that long hair characteristic of Persian cat is coming from Pallas cat hybridization but latest researches showed that it’s not true.
First known and registered Persian cats went to Europe in 1600s. They were Persian cats from Khorasan, Persia and Angora, Turkey. The Khorasan cats were grey coated and Angora cats were white coated. Today scientists agree that it’s very hard to find original Persian ancestor cat.
Traditional Persian cat is also known as Doll Face Persian and officially registering its nickname as “flat faced”. Researchers worked to create bigger and easy to distinguish faces for traditional Persian cats and then this type is called Ultra-face Persian but after health problems, this researches has stopped.
Another popular type of Persian cat today is Himalayan. Himalayan type is result of the Siamese cats’ crossing with Persian cats. After crossing, body came from Persian and colors came from Siamese. Breed was very similar to Himalayan rabbit and called as Himalayan. In Uk, breed is registering as Colorpoint Longhair.
Exotic Shorthair is other type of Persian cats. American Shorthair breeders outcrossed their American Shorthair cats with Persian cats because American Shorthair type was living serious health problems. Hybrid type firstly became popular and some breeders went to CFA for registering the type in 1966. CFA registered the breed as Exotic Shorthair. They weren’t carrying the main characteristic long hair of Persian cats but also they aren’t carrying most of Persian cats’ characteristic illnesses. Because a Persian cat needs to be brushed every day and Exotic Shorthair doesn’t’, it became very easy to enter it to market and sold to people.
Toy and Teacup Persian Cat breeds were also created. They were very small sized with characteristics of traditional Persian cats. They couldn’t find demand on market and cat registration offices don’t accept them as a different brand. Today there’s no definite size or characteristic for these breeds.
Chinchilla is also a popular type of Persian cats today. Chinchilla breed’s adventure started with an attempt to registrant offices for registering Silver Persian as a different brand. None of registrant offices accepted this attempt and the new name “Sterling”. So Silver and Golden longhaired cats are accepted with color palette names like Chinchilla Silvers, Chinchilla Goldens and similar.
In United States, Persian cat is still one of the most popular cat types. But in UK, today it’s possible to find only British Shorthair. Seal Point, Flame Point, Blue Point and Tortie Point Himalayan are the most registered subtypes.
Today, they are an popular culture icon and mostly in animal featured animations and movies, they are the antagonist. Most popular antagonist Persian Cat is Austin Powers’ Mr. Bigglesworth. Latest breeds’ lifespan is 11 to 18 years and also they are still carrying their characteristic short legs.
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